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Thursday, December 27, 2012

Aside from receiving beautiful gifts this Christmas, we also received so many beautiful wrapping papers. My sister had a brilliant idea: what better way to do with them than recycling into greeting cards?

I've been looking for different ways to make your own wrapping paper this season and this is one of the ideas that I saw in the internet so I gave it a try.

Start with punching white/cream paper and gold plastic foil. If you try to punch the plastic foil alone, it's going to be too soft and it won't punch properly. So what I did was I used the white paper as backing and the circle cuts were clean.

Prepare your kraft paper and just cut the length that you will only need. Make sure you have newspaper so that the spray adhesive will not ruin your flooring.

Then use adhesive spray onto your kraft paper.

Lightly sprinkle the gold and white dots on the kraft paper. Some will not lay flat so it's good to press them using your finger or the tip of a pencil.

Let the adhesive dry for a while. Otherwise if you're too excited to wrap your gifts (like me), it will be a sticky situation for your hands. On a positive note, I didn't have to use scotch tape to seal my gifts since the wrapping paper was sticky enough.

Nice and simple. One more wrapping post to come and then I'm going to enjoy my Christmas eve. :)

Sunday, December 16, 2012

So I got these alphabet rubber stamps in Divisoria. They sell it online for P400.00. In Divisoria, they sell it for P250.00 But thanks to my Chinese officemate, she was able to haggle with the Chinese vendor and brought the price down to P150.00. Hooray for bargain!

I'll be doing two designs for Christmas gift wrap out of kraft paper and rubber stamps. I used both designs for my gift for Allie during out Secret Santa last week.

It also comes with a star, which I will be using later.

I cut a certain length of Kraft paper from my roll. Long enough to wrap my framed monograms with.

Same as my last post, my color scheme would be white and gold. I'll be using poster paint as "ink" for my rubber stamps.

Where in Manila can you buy stamp pads in gold and white and silver and pink, and all the colors of the rainbow??? I have no idea, I have yet to find out. For those who know, please advise me. Thanks!

Since I don't have a stamp pad, it's a long process for me. I paint on the rubber letters one by one. But I don't really mind if it's time consuming. I'm making it with love <3

So the words that I will be stamping in my kraft paper are: merry, christmas, happy, holidays. You may use other words like santa, snowflake, reindeer, mistletoe, etc.

First the gold paint,

then the white.

I used the rubber stamp star for another gift wrap design. Again, gold and white:

And so I got addicted to wrapping gifts with my handmade wrapping paper that I even asked my sister if I could wrap her gifts.

This is not over! I will still look for more ways on making your own wrapping paper before Christmas ends!

One of my handmade gifts for Christmas is button monograms. I have been seeing them on Pinterest since forever and I've been wanting to try them.

Finally I was able to go to Divisoria to purchase craft items. I bought buttons for P1.00 a piece, while in the department store, it's about P5.00 a piece. Too bad I only had P100.00 left so I was just able to buy 100 pieces all in the same sizes.

I got these picture frames at Daiso for P66.00 each. First I removed the glass since my button artwork will not be flat and I want the person receiving it to feel the buttons. Hehe.

But since I didn't have any cardboard around, I just used the glass as base for my artwork. I wrapped it with nice printed fabric (which I got months ago for a project that I haven't finished up to now). It's also fine to use paper, be it plain or printed.

And sealed the fabric with packing tape. I guess masking tape will work as well.

When you flip it right side up, they look like this:

Then I printed my monogram templates on scratch paper. K is for Kristine, C is for Charisse (or Catherine if she doesn't want this), and E is for Erin. The first two are my sisters and the last one is my cousin.

I cut the letters and positioned them on my fabric board,

and lightly traced the outline with a pencil.

Then you can start placing the buttons. Earlier I had already grouped the colors of the buttons and placed them on the template so I know which buttons go where and how.

You may glue the buttons or sew them on fabric to make them more secure. I just glued them one by one since I didn't have a needle and some thread near me.

This is how they look like up close:

I hand painted the frames in white and here is the final product:

I do recommend using different sizes of buttons for those small corners in the letter. The next time I'm going to Tabora, I'm bringing more cash and splurge on buttons! I could sell these, if people like them, and if people are too lazy to make them.

I'll be wrapping these gifts and will post the handmade gift wrap designs soon :)

Welcome!

Hi! My name is Catherine, a crafty designer based in Manila who is passionate about art, loves to decorate, and explores her cooking abilities. This blog is where I post my creative output and good finds on the internet. :)